Chris Brown's Twitter Tantrum

Chris Brown has a bone to pick with his distributors. In an invective-laden outburst on Twitter, the chart-topping R&B singer lashed out at retailers for not stocking his new record "Graffiti":

im tired of this s----. major stores r blackball my
cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers... yeah i said it
and i aint retracting s---... im not biting my tongue about s---
else... the industry can kiss my ass.

Last
February, Brown shocked the industry and his fans when he brutally beat
his ex-girlfriend Rihanna during a confrontation. Brown has since tried
to restore his image, appearing on 20/20 and other outlets expressing
remorse. But this latest attack has some critics astonished at how little
the pop star has learned. Offering the most robust condemnation of
Brown's tantrum is E! Online's Jennifer Cady:

We
can only assume that some of these stores are not stocking his
album because he's a convicted woman beater (unless anyone has a better
guess) ... Not everyone has to support
the singer just because he told a few talk-show hosts he's
sorry.

All this little Twitter rant does is make Chris look like a whiny,
hotheaded, entitled jerk, which doesn't exactly match up with the whole
sensitive, changed man image he's been trying to work.

Playing apologist for the day is Chicago Now's Shamontiel Vaughn who says Brown is an entertainer not a role model and deserves a listen:

Chris Brown's talent has not changed. I bought the CD.
Some will find it hypocritical for those who are against domestic
violence to support the career of someone who was clearly in a domestic
dispute. However, Chris Brown was brought to the entertainment industry
to sing, dance and perform, not to be our role models.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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